'It is done': South Dakota executes inmate

South Dakota on Monday executed an Eric Robert, 50, convicted of beating a prison guard to death during a failed escape attempt. It was the state's first execution in five years, Reuters reports. South Dakota has only had two since 1913. Robert in his final words forgave the warden for the execution and said, "It is done."

South Dakota on Monday executed an inmate convicted of beating a prison guard to death during a failed escape attempt, in the state's first execution in five years, Reuters reports. He was given a lethal injection and pronounced dead at 10:24 p.m. Reuters reported his last words were: "In the name of justice and liberty and mercy I authorize and forgive Warden Douglas Weber to execute me for my crimes. It is done." The state has only had one other execution since 1913, when Elijah Page was put to death in 2007 for murder.

Robert was a former supervisor of a Superior city wastewater crew, the Duluth News Tribune reports. He went to prison in 2005, accused of posing as a police officer and kidnapping an 18-year-old woman and putting her in the trunk of his car. She called police from her cell phone.

Robert received his last meal of ice cream on Sunday night, WDAY reported.

Robert's life story is unlike most others on death row – he at one time had been a model citizen, the Associated Press reports. The AP says he was a good student, put himself through college, had a solid career and was a community volunteer.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard does not plan to intervene in Monday's execution of a former Superior resident, the Duluth News Tribune reports. Eric Donald Robert, 50, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 p.m. for the killing of prison guard Ronald Johnson during a failed escape attempt at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls.

Law enforcement officials need the public's help in locating five bags full of cash that was either lost or misplaced by Rochester Armored Car about two weeks ago in eastern South Dakota or southwestern Minnesota, KELO-TV reports. A Minneapolis FBI agent says the money was placed in clear plastic bags. Anyone who finds the cash or know where it's at must notify authorities or you could be prosecuted.

Former South Dakota governor and congressman Bill Janklow died Thursday after a fight with inoperable brain cancer. He was 72. He's remembered as a man with big ideas who transformed the state with passion and determination.

Some lawmakers in South Dakota want to show their support for hydraulic fracturing, a controversial process that uses water, sand and chemicals under high pressure to extract oil and gas from rock in the earth. The process has opened up new energy sources and driven down the cost of natural gas, but critics say it pollutes groundwater, and the EPA is studying it closely.